In recent years, Samsung has been putting all its marbles into the development of foldable devices, a brand new market segment that the manufacturer has cleared. Yes the mayonnaise finally seems to rise, it is clear that for the moment, it does not really thrill sales as much as observers (and perhaps even Samsung) could hope.
In 2021, Samsung retained its crown as the top smartphone maker in terms of global market share, according to TrendForce. But the growth was very modest: +0.9% year-on-year, while Apple garnered a 25.5% surge (+35.1% for Xiaomi). Despite Samsung’s strenuous efforts with increasingly sophisticated (and increasingly cheaper) foldable smartphones, the company’s progress seems stalled against more conservative competition.
While Samsung is making its way into the foldable, the competition has preferred to focus on augmented reality and virtual reality. Meta, with the Quest 2 and his big, slightly crazy ambitions for the metaverse, Apple and his future helmet not given, Microsoft and the HoloLens, Sony with PSVR2 for the PlayStation 5… There’s some nice linen here, but from Samsung, period.
However, Samsung had also been a precursor and a zealous promoter of virtual reality there: at one time, the manufacturer marketed a Gear VR headset for use with its high-end smartphones (when the device was not directly offered to the purchase). But since 2019, initiatives in this area have been much more discreet, if not non-existent.
Virtual reality is no longer popular at Samsung
Samsung hasn’t completely abandoned this ground, however. Last November, the company invested in the capital of DigiLens, a start-up manufacturer of XR glasses (a catch-all term designating virtual reality and augmented reality). And then Samsung can always draw from its partners and internally to quickly develop its own helmet.
But the experts interviewed by The Korea Herald are worried: even putting aside the hardware (and that’s not nothing), Samsung does not have the right platform. Apple has been honing its weapons since the first version of ARKit, Sony can of course count on its studios and third-party studios to design content, Meta already has its own ecosystem…
Samsung will row to get on the train if by chance the XR should end up exploding among the general public and in uses (Statista predicts that this market could weigh 300 billion dollars by 2024). And the day may come when augmented reality glasses will replace smartphones, foldable or not.
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